Playing Frontlines is the most fun I've had in BF1

T4R. Frontlines is the new gamemode introduced with the They Shall Not Pass expansion today. It's got a pseudo-Conquest flag capture system in which you can only contest one flag at a time in a row of flags between each team's base (3 or 5 flags depending on map size). Once you push into the enemy base, you get 40 tickets to basically play Rush with two telegraph stations. Once you destroy these, you win.

I didn't anticipate liking the gametype nearly as much as I do and here's a few reasons why:

Game Length: If you get two relatively evenly-matched teams, these games can easily go on for over an hour. The last time I played a game which lasted an hour using the stock game rules was Battlefield 3 on my PS3 back in 2012. So far I've played three matches, two of which lasted sixty minutes even and one which lasted about twenty-five minutes. I had time to unlock nearly half the weapons available in TSNP in one game and spent the next doing 168 kills with the Chauchat. The long matches feel like a huge battle is taking place with actual lines and flanks and pushes and everything that comes with that. Conquest by comparison is just a game of backcapping with no real lines and small teamfights. Operations is ruined by a large number of things, namely the playercount. Speaking of...

Playercount: Frontlines is a 32-player gamemode. It's the absolute perfect game size IMO. Chokepoints don't get totally clogged by teammates, yet there are enough players for large drawn-out team fights to still happen. The fact that points take a fairly long time to capture also contributes to this. Enough players so it doesn't feel empty like Rush but not so many to feel swamped everywhere you go. By comparison, Operations has 40 players at the absolute minumum but usually has 64. This results in a total clusterfuck. Split lines everywhere and no real team coordination in an asymmetrical gamemode where one team is basically predestined to fail anyway. On the subject of asymmetry...

Symmetry: Operations is a gamemode where one team pretty distinctly always has the advantage outside of sheer player skill. Defenders win 80% to 90% of all Operations games (IIRC) so at a certain point, there's no reason to keep trying to win as one team can gain huge momentum and steamroll your whole team. Frontlines attempts to solve this problem by introducing a variable attack/defend gamemode with an even number of points and MCOM kills required to win for either team. If one team captures a point, they're not immediately given vision of the other team's units and instead have to manually clear them out while the next point in the line takes 30 seconds or so to unlock for capping. One team also isn't assisted by a giant Left Click to Win when they get down in the shitter. They actually have to pull themselves back without a sky monster raining death from above...

No Behemoths, No Elite Classes: Outside of Cavalry units being available on Rupture and Soisson, there are no Elite classes in Frontlines. There are also zero Behemoths available for either team at any point. It's (for the most part) entirely down to your team's ability to control an area with infantry vs. infantry, with the exception of the previously mentioned maps which contain a small amount of armor units (1 or 2 IIRC) for each team. Additionally, there are zero aircraft available, thank the lord. This creates situations where it's actual player skill and positioning which ends up winning games instead of one guy's ability to left click with the Villar Perosa for fifteen minutes. There is a legitimate push and pull dynamic which can swing either way at a moment's notice. For example, I had a game on Soisson where the enemy team had completely pushed up into our base and killed one of our MCOMs. The game was for all intents and purposes over. I planted my ass on the last MCOM and denied the plant until they ran out of tickets which unlocked the next point for capture once again. My team and I then proceeded to push them back along the entire path and into their base, winning the game over the course of about thirty minutes after it should have effectively been over. We didn't need an Airship to do this. We got our shit together and played smarter as a team.

The Music: This one is a smaller aspect and relates more to the DLC as a whole. The new score they've included with the TSNP maps is absolutely incredible. So much better than the default string orchestra crap that you've heard on the death screen a hundred times in a typical Operations game. The near-round-end music in particular has some truly epic-sounding brass orchestral sounds that set the mood absolutely perfectly. As it gets really close to over, the strings get much more panicked-sounding and tense like you're about to lose. The atmosphere of this gamemode is already incredible and the score only adds to that.

Actually feels like Battlefield: I haven't felt the rush of excitement in a Battlefield like I did today playing Frontlines for years now. Despite the smaller game size, I felt like I was taking place in a much larger battle than I really was. Constant waves of attackers no matter if you're on the defensive or offensive mean that there's never a truly dull moment, even when preparing to defend after a retreat. There's always the looming uncertainty about what exactly the enemy team will try to do and when they'll do it. There's absolutely a defined front line but there's more flank opportunities than in other gamemodes so you can never really know. I honestly felt like I did when playing Rush on Tehran Highway for the first time years and years ago. Pure straight-up fun. Yeah, grenades are still bullshit and WTF how did that guy fucking bayonet charge me 90 degrees around a corner but the way the gamemode is designed helps to overcome a lot of this IMO. Even my old favorite Rush (which I still had a lot of fun with in this game) couldn't really hold up in comparison.

So basically what I'm getting at is if you haven't spent any time in Frontlines yet, you need to do so rightfuckingnow. It's honestly a total blast and even if you don't feel like tryharding, you still have plenty of opportunity to unlock your new baguette weapons. More so than Conquest or Ops by a country mile. Do yourself a favor and play what is the single best gamemode in BF1 at this moment in time.

Each team starts out with a flag (2 flags on Soissons and then duke it out for B which was to be expected. Rear objectives are locked, so there won't be any back capping and they unlock after 25s-30s after a different objective has been captured. When an objective unlocks, it becomes neutral so it must be re-captured. For example, the French are pushed back to their HQ meaning that the Germans have control of A, B, and C. If the French defend their HQ then the closest objective unlocks and becomes neutral and so on and so forth. The flag capture rate is MUCH slower than Conquest, which enables both teams to contest a singular flag for far longer. When pushed back to the HQs where the Telegraphs are located, the attacking team gets 40 tickets compared to Rush's 75 so it might be easier to defend depending on where the opposing team's closest spawn is. At any rate this looks like a high-action and fast-paced game type. The Standard Issue Rifles/Back to Basics Custom game would be magnificent for this mode. Let's hope DICE offers it for more than just Conquest in the future.

The game does not end once the Telegraphs have been successfully defended which I rather quite like. The game continues and the team defending has a chance to go back on the offensive. However, a destroyed Telegraph does not reset. If one Telegraph is destroyed in the initial attack it will remain destroyed during the next one.

it's 16v16 with two of the maps focused entirely on infantry with plenty of flanking opportunity, so it really isn't as bad as one would think. Plus, it really doesn't look like one team will get bogged down into a meatgrider because shifts in flag possession or transitioning from flag to flag looks to happen pretty frequently. Worst case scenario you just get steamrolled.

no team is truly on the defensive, that is until the Telegraphs in the HQ but even then a team previously on the defensive can steal the momentum and push the opposing team all the way to their HQ. It's all about momentum, which is consistent in that of many sports like American Football, Football (Soccer), or even Basketball.

each objective is spaced out evenly by the looks of it, so no team has a distance advantage. And since flag B becomes un-cap-able or un-spawn-able once flag A has been taken, the team contesting flag B, who now has to fall back to defend an imminent advance, has an opportunity to reach flag C before the 'attacking' team does. Then once either side takes flag C, flag B begins to unlock or the Telegraphs become available. Whichever team has more momentum or whichever team steals the momentum will win the objective.

That said I am extremely excited to try this mode out. After work today, I can finally indulge in the amazing-ness of it.

Prepare your laughbox

the Sebstalder is quiet good since it can 3hit kill at any distanc ,but In my opinion i actually thikn the sweeper is better, its got a really really fast firerate that can beat alll those Noobmaticos, Helregall adn shitguns in close quarters , and its also really accurate out to like l;ong range,. overall great allround gun, jsut my 2$ tho

Two rounds so far...the mode definitely needs a time limit of 20-30 minutes. Was fun at first, and is surprisingly open, but you are still cramped into objectives. Also I was flanking the whole round and was the lowest on the leaderboard, the smartest thing to do is to be on the defending spot at all times since you only get points for the full capture not while you are capturing.

It gets really old, when in balanced rounds you fight around one flag all the time.

Two rounds so far...the mode definitely needs a time limit of 20-30 minutes. Was fun at first, and is surprisingly open, but you are still cramped into objectives. Also I was flanking the whole round and was the lowest on the leaderboard, the smartest thing to do is to be on the defending spot at all times since you only get points for the full capture not while you are capturing.

It gets really old, when in balanced rounds you fight around one flag all the time.

Edit: If you have fun with it, good on you.

Yes.

Which is why it makes no sense why you want to backcap in a game mode designed to not permit backcapping.

With this, I'll rid MGO3 of infestation. Sans bad gameplay MGO3 will be torn asunder. And then it shall be free. People will suffer, of course - a phantom pain.

Reddit and Konami will rewrite the records... And I will be demonized in human memory. But... The thirst for good gameplay that I have planted will infest MGO3. No one can stop it now. The Rebalance Mod will unleash that thirst unto the future.

Two rounds so far...the mode definitely needs a time limit of 20-30 minutes. Was fun at first, and is surprisingly open, but you are still cramped into objectives. Also I was flanking the whole round and was the lowest on the leaderboard, the smartest thing to do is to be on the defending spot at all times since you only get points for the full capture not while you are capturing.

It gets really old, when in balanced rounds you fight around one flag all the time.

Edit: If you have fun with it, good on you.

Yes.

Which is why it makes no sense why you want to backcap in a game mode designed to not permit backcapping.

If you want to play backcap, Conquest still exists.

Frontlines isn't supposed to be Conquest TSNP Edition.

I was talking about how flanking does not net you points. Look at Fort Vaux I believe it was. In a balanced match mostly you will fight around B and A/C. A smart thing one would think would be to flank around and kill the enemies from behind that try to take the current objective. However, there are many things not working well with flanking in BF1, and this is one of them. You might get kills, you might even help the team more, but you do not get points for this as opposed to say Conquest, or even Operations. So you did not quite udnerstand the point I was trying to make.

I was talking about how flanking does not net you points. Look at Fort Vaux I believe it was. In a balanced match mostly you will fight around B and A/C. A smart thing one would think would be to flank around and kill the enemies from behind that try to take the current objective. However, there are many things not working well with flanking in BF1, and this is one of them. You might get kills, you might even help the team more, but you do not get points for this as opposed to say Conquest, or even Operations. So you did not quite udnerstand the point I was trying to make.

No I believe I understood very well.

And as I said in my previous post, the game mode is designed to not permit, or at least reward, such behavior.

It is called Frontline for a reason.

The lack of points should be providing you the feedback that what you are doing is wrong.

With this, I'll rid MGO3 of infestation. Sans bad gameplay MGO3 will be torn asunder. And then it shall be free. People will suffer, of course - a phantom pain.

Reddit and Konami will rewrite the records... And I will be demonized in human memory. But... The thirst for good gameplay that I have planted will infest MGO3. No one can stop it now. The Rebalance Mod will unleash that thirst unto the future.

Had a game this morning on Fort De Vaux where we were getting the crap kicked out of us for about an hour, but we managed to hold one of the two MCOMs at the end. Then suddenly myself and a bunch of other teammates switched to Medic, we got a Medic train going, and we were able to turn the momentum all the way back to the other side and win. That was pretty awesome.

Though that map setup is well suited for tank turtling, which makes for a very dull game. Unless your friendly AT is on point, it can be a crapshow.

In my first game, which was on Verdun Heights, I also got all 50 Automatico Factory kills and 6 MP18 Optical headshots for the assignment. That was satisfying.

I was talking about how flanking does not net you points. Look at Fort Vaux I believe it was. In a balanced match mostly you will fight around B and A/C. A smart thing one would think would be to flank around and kill the enemies from behind that try to take the current objective. However, there are many things not working well with flanking in BF1, and this is one of them. You might get kills, you might even help the team more, but you do not get points for this as opposed to say Conquest, or even Operations. So you did not quite udnerstand the point I was trying to make.

No I believe I understood very well.

And as I said in my previous post, the game mode is designed to not permit, or at least reward, such behavior.

It is called Frontline for a reason.

The lack of points should be providing you the feedback that what you are doing is wrong.

Well if this was the intention behind this mode, it is indeed the dullest piece of BF I've ever seen. I mean we had fun ideas for gamemodes like Scavenger, and some that sounded better than they were like Chainlink, Obliteration as an ambitious effort to make a competitive mode, or CTF as a throwback, and many of them were discarded for good reasons. But at least there was some kind of design philosophy behind it. If that is indeed what Frontline is about than it is indeed mindless.
I doubt that, but in that case, a mode without any flags or objectives at all might be more appealing to the crowd.

That does intrigue me though. Is there one fragment of BF1 that you do not thoroughly support? Or maybe one thing that you absolutely hate about BF1? I mean I am quite fond of you being the guy that knows so much about this game and still/hence totally enjoys this game, but I can not recall you saying anything negative about anything in this game.